The Acceptance of Autonomous Vehicles: Challenges and Strategies

There are many benefits that a model of mobility based on autonomous and connected vehicles offers, particularly in terms of efficiency, sustainability, and safety. However, and although current technologies are already proving their effectiveness, social acceptance is still far from total.

Then again, technological evolution has always been marked by initial resistance. There are many historical examples: the impact for those who experienced the first elevators must have been overwhelming, and at the time many people surely said they would never ride one. However, the benefit was obvious, and the technology prevailed.

Like all disruptive technologies, autonomous mobility faces a certain degree of resistance to its use and acceptance. First of all, the perceived risk is high, and a certain level of distrust, as people are placing their physical safety in the hands of technologies they do not fully understand.

Another major challenge for trust is ensuring that autonomous vehicles are secure against potential cyberattacks, which the EC project SELFY is working to ensure (in this context, the project is conducting a survey to identify related challenges associated with automated mobility).

On the other hand, public opinion is also affected by media coverage that highlights testing failures.

Stakeholders need to find new ways to proactively educate potential users on the advantages and current limitations of vehicle automation systems. Automated driving technology is still very much in an evolving and testing stage with improvements occurring quickly.

Bryan Reimer, Ph.D., research scientist in the AgeLab at the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics and a founder of MIT’s Advanced Vehicle Technology (AVT) Consortium

Experience appears to greatly improve confidence in the technology: consumers who have ridden in a robotaxi have an MCI¹ index score of 67, which is almost double the index score (37) of those who haven’t. These positive first-hand experiences also need to be shared with the public to educate and provide balance to the negative news cycle.

Source: The original article was published here

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¹ Mobility Confidence Index (MCI), J.D. Power 2023 U.S. Mobility Confidence Index Study